When I read the headline about Jared Leto saying he stayed in touched with Elizabeth Holmes I thought, of course he did. Even before I opened the story. Because of course Jared would be pen pals with someone as controversial as Theranos’ creator and destroyer. At least the article gave me context. Jared filmed his Actors on Actors segment with Amanda Seyfried who just played Elizabeth on Hulu’s The Dropout. Amanda had not been allowed to meet Elizabeth or communicate with her in any way because she was on trial during the filming. So she was very eager to hear from someone who had met the woman in person. Jared met Elizabeth after he was impressed with her on stage. He also presented her the 2015 Glamour Magazine Woman of the Year Award. Jared told Amanda he found Elizabeth quite pleasant but admitted she never let on that there was anything wrong with her personal or professional life. And even though they are no longer in contact, Jared surmised that, “no one is one thing.”
I had heard her speak in Palo Alto. She was great onstage. She was incredibly smart, funny — and then I met her after that, and I liked her a lot. She was sweet. She was kind. But no indication that things weren’t great in her life and at the company. And then I gave her an award. And now I’m here with you. We stayed in touch after that and talked a few times, but my experience with her was always quite lovely. Not everyone is one thing. No one is one thing.
Jared is a hard person to gauge this off because he has such a questionable work process of his own. Who knows who he connects with? But The Dropout presents Elizabeth as someone who attracts people and in whom they have unwavering confidence. Unfortunately, Amanda and the show failed to give any convincing reason why Elizabeth appealed to anyone. But something roped in that many high-profile investors. If you watch the interview, Jared sounds like he’s trying to reconcile the person he befriended and the person that emerged when the scandal broke. It speaks to his point that people are not only one thing. We all probably have a side to us that would surprise others. However, most of us don’t have a side so exponentially horrible that it overshadows anything good about us. It’s also an interesting comment from Jared because I don’t think much of him or his antics. But I enjoyed him in this interview. He was engaging and compassionate. He even provided a space for Amanda to get her thoughts out when she started to spin off track. If I only knew him from this interview, I might be a fan.
Jared was with Amanda because he played Adam Neumann in the Apple TV+ WeCrashed series. I mentioned it before, but he was great in that role. Both he and Anne Hathaway were. Jared spoke about meeting Adam when he was almost finished filming the series and he clearly applied the no on is one thing rule to Adam. I don’t. But at least after watching WeCrashed I understood how people got caught up in his orbit.
Photo credit: Instagram, Getty images and Avalon Red
Of course he did – he’s a talented actor and easy on the eyes but he is so many shades of douche who seems to revel in his notoriety.
Exactly.
I dislike him so strongly. He’s disingenuous and a megalomaniac. He’s also a very tiny person when you meet him. People like that can also be easily taken in by the cons of more successful people. People that speak his language of BS.
People who think they are smarter than everyone else are easily conned because they are over reliant on their own opinions. Holmes preyed on that.
Considering Hollywood’s long con, fake-it-til-you-make-it culture, I suspect her grift seems kinda normal to him and at least she was pleasant compared to the openly abusive showbiz execs. Unfortunately, her lies weren’t about making some crappy series and people died.
They’re both cult leaders with no substance, so this makes a lot of sense
Like attracted to like…
The wealthy private backers are only part of the equation. Wall St and Silicone Valley investors are terrified of missing out on the next big “unicorn idea” investment, so when an Elizabeth Holmes or Adam Neumann comes along, using big words and catchy buzzwords like “disruptive”, these investors get stars in their eyes, to the point that they ignore their own analysts telling them the investment may not be as sound as they think it is. Suddenly these companies are worth billions but don’t have a sound business model or leadership team in place. And no one has ever sat these investors down and explained bluntly to them that the reason they keep getting conned is because they keep looking for unicorns, which don’t actually exist.
And yeah, Leto and Holmes: two lousy people who connected with each other. That fits.
I have watched The drop out, We Crashed, Super Pumped, Inventing Anna. I am a sucker for these true dramas with such subjects. If anyone wants to make some recommendations please do.
I’m a sucker too, but I might be growing out of it, lol. Didn’t like Inventing Anna, and thought The DropOut was mediocre. I liked Super Pumped and WeCrashed because the performances were so much more compelling. Hopefully someone is making an AirBnb and Bitcoin biopic to sate our schadenfreude palattes!
I did like we crashed a lot.. Explains a lot about leto though and his admiration of that grifter
Have you seen the Deep End? It’s about the cult leader Teal Swan and is on Hulu. Another fascinating character study…She’s still going though so it’s a little different.
I liked Inventing Anna until they decided to try to make people feel sorry for. Yeah, no. She’s a con artist , I don’t feel sorry for her and stop trying to make her out to be some kind of cross between Peter Pan and Robin Hood. What she did to her so-called friend in Morocco was heinous and to have the other friends turn on her because she didn’t let Anna slide was complete BS.
Yeah, no one is any one thing, Jared. You can be an actor, musician, cult leader, groomer of underage girls…the sky’s the limit! /s
How he hasn’t been exposed to more than a shoulder shrug is beyond me.
I’ve met Leto twice and he’s an abusive piece of work. One time I witnessed at a concert a girl came up to him for an autograph. It was a picture of him when he was on a soap I guess. He refused to sign it and told her how awful she was for liking that show and expecting him to sign it. Tore up the picture.
This was maybe 10 years ago now.
I know he’s a complete douche, but I will always love him as Jordan Catalano from “My So Called Life”. I had such a crush on him back then.
Oh me too.
Yeah, this tracks. Cult recognizes cult.
How did one look at that face and not think, “This person is batsh*t crazy.” I’m talking about Elizabeth, here.
This is what I don’t understand.
I watched the Dropout and I’ve seen her interviews. She comes across there as strange… but my awareness of her really is only in the context of doing this big, awful thing.
She must be really charismatic or something in person.
It’s not about different sides to a person. Obviously we’re not supposed to armchair diagnose people blah, blah, blah, but the fact that she was so completely, convincingly ‘sweet’ and ‘kind’ with no indication that anything was amiss is a strong indicator of sociopathy. Her mask was just excellently deployed.
Sue E, I totally agree! She has the hallmarks. I mean, you kinda have to be a narci to run in those circles.
Ps you have such a great name! always makes me smile
Jared Leto gives me James Franco vibes. Just full of themselves and they think they’re smarter than everyone else. And we all know Franco turned out to be a creep.
If being friends with Jared Leto means that he’s going to mail me used condoms and make me listen to 30 Seconds to Mars, then Holmes can keep him.
My husband and I listened to the audio book about Holmes on a recent long road trip. I can’t remember the name of the book, but it was written by the Wall Sheet Journal writer who broke the story. I didn’t love the person they chose to do the reading, but it’s still a really good listen and I’m going to read the book. I recommend it.
It’s a fascinating story, infuriating and baffling. It’s hard to imagine someone doing something so craven. This was a medical device and she was risking lives, but she persisted. No North Star in that one. She was deluding people but it seems like she was also deluding herself.
It’s clear that Holmes just had this magnetism and charisma that gave people unshakable faith in her. She was apparently amazing on stage. It’s almost unfathomable the people she managed to hoodwink. She had George Schultz and Henry freaking Kissinger on her board! And Schultz was loyal to the end. Damn.
I will watch the Seyfried version even if it’s apparently not great. I’ll watch all the versions.
I have blood work done constantly…and when you think about how VITAL those lab processes are to MILLIONS of people…
That woman should be spending 20 years in Federal prison!
Yes! She did real harm to real people. All because her ego was so big that she couldn’t admit the tech wasn’t there yet.
Thank you.